Steamed pork patty with water chestnuts and garlic watercress
A Cantonese home classic: minced pork steamed into a juicy patty studded with crunchy water chestnut, served with watercress stir-fried with garlic.
- 30 min
- Serves 3
- Steam
- Easy
Why it suits you: Damp-Heat types tend towards a bitter taste, spots and sticky stools. Everyone talks about tonics at Start of Winter, but heating tonics only add fuel to the fire here. Water chestnut clears heat and damp and watercress eases dryness, so with a steamed pork patty it's nourishing without being heating.
Method
Prep 15 min · Cook 15 min- 1Mix the pork with the soy sauce, ginger juice and water, stirring in one direction until sticky, then mix in the cornflour and water chestnuts.
- 2Spread the mixture evenly on a deep plate, pressing the centre a little thinner. Steam over high heat for 12 minutes until cooked, then scatter with the spring onion.
- 3Wash the watercress and cut into lengths. Fry the garlic in the oil until fragrant, add the watercress and stir-fry over high heat for 2 minutes, then season with salt.
Cautions
- Watercress is cooling — go easy if you have a weak, cold stomach or during your period.
Chef's tips
- Stirring the pork in one direction until sticky gives a springy patty. Don't dice the water chestnuts too finely, or you'll lose the crunch.
The TCM view
Pork is sweet, salty and neutral, nourishing yin and easing dryness. Water chestnut is sweet and cold, clearing heat and phlegm, generating fluids and draining damp. Watercress is sweet, slightly bitter and cool, moistening the lungs and clearing heat. Garlic is pungent and warm, warming the stomach and balancing the watercress's coolness. Neutral to slightly cool overall, it clears damp-heat without upsetting the stomach.
